Pegtymel

The film depicts Chukchi reindeer herders everyday life on the Pegtymel River, on the coast of the Chukchi Sea in the northeast part of Russia. Daily life and the autumn ritual are intersected with fly agaric mushroom stories told by old man Natalko and rock art images painted a thousand years ago on the Pegtymel cliffs. The camera traces the vivid dialogue of ancient and current traditions, beliefs and rituals, humans and nature; these are impressively abundant and picturesque in Chukchi traditional culture today.

"Pegtymel is a visual poem on the summer life of a reindeer-breeding Chukchi group. With stunning sensitivity and ethnographic intelligence the author photographs mostly camp activities. Against this background unfolds a tale of visions induced by the hallucinogenic fly agaric, mirrored also in old petroglyphs. Assembled together in a coherent mosaic structure, the visual materials give the impression of a cultural whole, of a global cultural form. A rare achievement indeed." 

- Asen Balikci, Anthropology Today

Filmed and Produced by Andrei Golovnev. Runtime 32 min (in English)